Utah MLK weekend 2006
Recently a couple friends invited me on a trip to the Ogden Valley in Utah for the Martin Luther King holiday weekend. Skiing the ‘greatest snow on earth’ was on the agenda naturally.
Day one: I arrived a day early and drove to my bed & breakfast before heading off for a day of touring above The Canyons. If you fly to Salt Lake City and want to ski the same day you can ski for free at one of three resorts: Park City, Deer Valley, or The Canyons. Just be sure to have a boarding pass or your baggage claim tickets. Free is a good price. I met some friendly Pork Sushi, I mean Park City, locals who showed me around a bit in the backcountry off the top of the resort. Some of it looked like this:
The last shot is a spot known as Dutch’s Draw which was the site of a massive slide that claimed a snowboarder’s life in January 2005.
Day 2: We went for a tour in Big Cottonwood Canyon with Tom Diegel who knows the Cottonwood canyons inside and out:
The snow was so good, at least to the Oregonians, that I didn’t bother to set up any downhill skiing pictures.
Days 3 & 5: We skied the incomparable hill known as Powder Mountain or Pow Mow. This place is a throwback to a bygone era. The Green Bay Packers of ski resorts if you will. The Bart Starr Packers or the Packers when Brett Favre was in his prime. The terrain is moderate for the most part and the vibe cozy and friendly.
Woody, pictured above, drives the bus that picks up skiers who ski off the backside of the mountain and end up beside the entrance road where there are no lifts.
Pictured above is Lightning Ridge. You can either thigh power the ridge or cough up 7 bucks for a snow-kitty ride. We opted for thigh power with Dave Flemming leading the charge on the right.
I finally got around to snapping some downhill pictures with my point ‘n shoot. Here is Steve “CJ” Berman on bended knee following the brief hike along Lightning Ridge:
Day 4: Due to a fairly sizeable snow dump we decided to head for Snowbasin on the southern edge of the Ogden Valley. Snowbasin was the site of the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympic downhill run. The place is a Sun Valley resort and, needless to say, quite posh. The snow was deep and the crowds thin.
